The present invention relates generally to a time clock, and more particularly, to a time clock having an illuminated printing chamber and/or patron guidance light.
Time clocks are used by businesses to keep track of time worked by hourly employees. To this end, time clocks may be positioned or located at entrances or exits of a business. Also, employees may be assigned or given a time card at the beginning of each week to indicate thereon the time worked by the employee via the time clock. The time card may have a plurality of time slots for the days of the week (e.g., Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) as well as for various times during the day (e.g., start work, start and end of lunch time, and end work). And, the time clock stamps start and end times of the time worked on respective time slots.
The time card for each employee may be placed at a central location adjacent the time clock. Each employee, when first coming to work at the beginning of the day, may insert his/her time card into the time clock and depress a print button to actuate a printing mechanism of the time clock to stamp a current time on the time card thereby indicating the time at which the employee started work. In particular, when the employee inserts the time card into the time clock, the employee aligns the time slot of the time card to the printing mechanism of the time clock by viewing both the printing mechanism and the time slot through a print window. However, the print window may not provide optimal viewing of the printing mechanism and the time slot because the time clock cover shades or blocks any ambient light from the printing mechanism and the time slot. The only light falling on the printing mechanism and the time slot is ambient light through the print window. As a result, the employee may not be able to see whether the appropriate time slot is aligned to the printing mechanism, and the time card may have a plurality of stamped times which are misaligned to the appropriate time slots. Hence, an accountant who calculates the time worked by the employee may have difficulty in reading the plurality of stamped times on the time card.
Additionally, when the employee looks through the print window, it is sometimes unclear to the employee where the time slot should be aligned: the employee only sees a plurality of mechanical parts. As such, the employee may misalign the time slot because the employee does not know what part to align the time slot to.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved time clock.